School Chaplains get the thumbs up

October 15, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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school.jpgAustralia’s first ever national research findings on chaplaincy in Australian government schools have just been released and the results are very positive.

According to the 688 principals who participated in the national study, chaplains in their government schools were helping to build the sense of community in the school , support the school ethos and were assisting the integration of those who were considered potentially ‘at risk’ students.

A couple of days ago on my morning radio programme I spoke to Fiona Pitkin, Head of Chaplaincy Services for YouthCare in Western Australia. Fiona explained more about the work of chaplains in Australian schools.

You can hear what she had to say by clicking the play button on the audio player at the bottom of this post.

Did you have a chaplain at your school? What do you think of the idea of having chaplains in governemnt schools? Have you seen the beenfits of chaplains in your life or in the life of your children? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Please leave a comment in the comments section of this post.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.sonshinefm.ws/feeds/MOR131009_1234.mp3]

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Growing Families DVDs

October 12, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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If you’re looking for some good, Australian, parenting resources, you really can’t go past the stuff that David and Charissa Scotford are producing. Have a look at the promotional video in this post and you’ll get an idea of what they’re producing in their efforts to help families.

David and Charissa are guests on my 98.5 Sonshine FM radio programme every fortnight and they have some great practical tips to becoming better parents and growing great families. You can check out the range of DVDs they’ve produced at the Growing Families DVDs Website.



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Kindle Finally Available

October 7, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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amazonkindle.jpgI’ve loved the idea of the Kindle ever since Amazon started selling them, but being in Australia meant that I couldn’t buy one.

The waiting is over. If you’re in Australia or many other countries around the world you can now buy the latest generation Kindle Wireless Reading Device. Aparently they’re set to work on 3G networks.

With this new Kindle, you can get your books, newspapers, and magazines delivered while at home or abroad in over 100 countries.

At Amazon, we’ve always been obsessed with having every book ever printed, and we know that even the best reading device would be useless without a massive selection of books. Today, the Kindle Store has more than 350,000 books, newspapers, magazines, and blogs available. This is just the beginning. Our vision is to have every book ever printed, in any language, all available in under 60 seconds on Kindle. We won’t stop until we get there.

Whether you prefer biographies, classics, investment guides, thrillers, or sci-fi, thousands of your favorite books are available, including 104 of 112 books currently found on the New York Times® Best Seller list. New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases are $9.99, and you’ll find many books for less.

It would make reading a lot simpler than carrying around bundles and bundles of books, magazines and newspapers. Looks like I need to start putting some money aside for a Kindle.



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Some Cheesey Brilliance

October 7, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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vegemite.jpgDo you ever get the feeling that you’re being taken for a ride? I reckon most of Australia has been unwittingly been dragged into a brilliant marketing campaign by Kraft.

Aussies have loved Vegemite for years and so when Kraft created a new version of its thick, black, yeasty spread, people flocked to the shops to grab a jar. The push was made more effective by the fact that the new spread had no name and Kraft was asking the public to come up with a name.

Let’s face it, if you’re going to name a prodct you have to sample it and so thousands of Aussies were tasting the new spread and talking about it with friends and work colleaugues. Some liked it, others decided that the original was still the best. I reckon that meant that some Aussies who hadn’t bought a jar of the stuff for a while would be grabbing their old favourite from the supermarket shelves. Kraft still wins.

Finally the name for the new spread is announced …. iSnack 2.0. Interesting name but no one seemed to like it so Kraft said, “OK we’ll let people vote on the new name”. Finally a new new name has been announced …. Vegemite Cheesybite. Very unimaginative yet the whole saga has kept the new spread, and by association the old one, in the news for months.

Even if the new Vegemite Cheesybite fails to grab a reasonable market share, Kraft still wins. They’ve managed to get so much publicity out of this exercise that I’m sure it’ll boost sales of both products. While I know that they’ve spent megabucks on the whole campaign, they’ve also had so much free publicity from the whole affair that I reckon it’ll work out to be an extremely cost effective marketing ploy.

Oh … just for the record … I haven’t tried the new spread but with all the publicity I have actually started eating more plain old Vegemite. Mmmm.



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Get Your Bike Ready

October 6, 2009
by Rodney Olsen
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bikeforbibles.jpgI’m sure you know by now that I’m less than two weeks away from riding from Perth to Albany to raise money for Cancer Council WA. If you haven’t had a chance to donate yet you can head to my secure donations page right now or click the SPONSOR ME button in my sidebar.

Now something specifically for those in the Perth area.

If you’re feeling inspired to ride for a good cause but you think that Perth to Albany might be a bit far, you can start training now to ride from Perth to Mandurah for Bike for Bibles. It’s a day trip of around 70 to 80 kilometres and you’ll find more information by clicking this link. Details are being finalised but now’s the time to commit yourself to being ready for the big day.

Spring has finally arrived so drag your bike out of the shed, pump up the tyres, and start getting ready for what should be an awesome day of riding with a great bunch of people. I need to check my calendar but I’m very tempted to sign up for this one.



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